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Cop Out (US - BD)

Feature After a sting operation goes south, detectives Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) are placed on unpaid suspension, which forces Jimmy to sell a prized baseball card in order to pay for his daughter's extravagant wedding. In the course of attempting to sell the card to a local dealer Jimmy is robbed, sending the duo on a high and low search which leads them to the collectible's new drug dealing owner Poh Boy (Guillermo Díaz) who makes Jimmy and Paul an offer they really can't refuse--retrieve a stolen Mercedes Benz and Jimmy can have the card back.

But while the whole deal might seem like a piece of cake to a couple of veteran gumshoes, the not-so-dynamic duo have to put up with parkour enthusiast and petty criminal Dave (Seann William Scott), Paul's marital insecurities, pistol packing housewives, an English impaired Latina prisoner and several other obstacles which bog down what might have otherwise been a really enjoyable action comedy. There are too many subplots and extraneous, unending scenes that take away from the central plot, which to be honest isn't that enthralling to begin with.

Even though the film wasn't written by Kevin Smith, according to the disc's extras there was a lot of ad-libbing by the director and his actors going on during the film's shoot. I'm just making an educated guess here, but I'd say that as the solely credited editor he couldn't bring himself to make the cuts here and there that the film desperately needed and allowed scenes to go on for a lot longer than what they ought to have. The very opening scene is a fine example of where some trimming would have made quite a difference. In it Paul tries out a new interrogation technique and it's very funny at first, but then the scene just goes on for too long and the movie becomes a parody of itself.

I guess I might have been skittish about trimming back too much had the best parts of my movie not been integral to the overall plot. Maybe Smith felt the main story wasn't strong enough on its own and needed the various distractions thrown up on the screen. Take for instance the character of Dave played by Seann William Scott, who not only steals a lot of stuff in the movie but every scene he is in throughout the picture. But is his character at all necessary to the story? No, not really. Neither is The Office alum and current Parks and Recreations star Rashida Jones as Paul's wife, who may or may not be having an affair with their neighbor. Nice to see her, but her character and the subplot involving Paul's marital insecurities just doesn't belong and take up too much of the 107-minute running time.

I generally like Kevin Smith's movies--even the one's I'm not supposed to such as Mallrats--but if I were to rank all of his movies from top to bottom Cop Out would be hanging out beneath Zack and Miri Make a Porno but somewhere right above Jersey Girl. I can't really bring myself to recommend the movie to anyone outside of Smith's most ardent fans, and they may find the lower quotient of dick and fart jokes compared to the rest of his filmography a disappointment.

Video Warner Home Video has supplied Cop Out on Blu-ray with a 1080p VC-1 video transfer at an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. While there isn't a whole lot about the video transfer to complain about, there isn't a whole lot to praise either. The transfer offers some nice added detail over its DVD counterpart and the film's color palette is rendered quite well. On the other hand, grain, noise and artifacting are a problem with the transfer that pop up every so often and contrast levels are inconsistent as well, especially during nighttime scenes of which there are quite a few.

Audio Just as with the video, there really isn't much to damn or praise about the disc's primary DTS-HD Master Audio track either. Dialogue is easily understood throughout, but Cop Out features a standard comedy sound mix with heavy emphasis on the front speakers and little use of the rear channels, though it picks it up a notch during a couple of action scenes. Harold Faltermeyer's score seems oddly out of time and place to the point of distraction--at times I found myself expecting Chevy Chase to pop into frame and provide a quick Irwin Fletcher cameo.

Extras Anyone who has viewed any of Warner's recent Blu-ray releases featuring their 'Maximum Movie Mode' feature will feel right at home here--if there's really a reason for anyone to purchase Cop Out on Blu-ray it's for the disc's 'Maximum Comedy Mode' in particular. Clocking in right around three-hours in length this Kevin Smith hosted feature dishes out all of the information--deleted and extended scenes, audio and video commentary, an extended cut of the film and more--you could possibly want to know about the picture. Also accessible either during the Maximum Comedy Mode or from the main menu are right around 20-minutes of focus points and a few nuggets of wisdom from The S**t Bandit that are worth checking out as well.

As great as the disc may be on the extras side, I still have a couple of minor complaints. For starters, the deleted and extended scenes and the extended cut of the film are only accessible via the Maximum Comedy Mode, which means if you just want to see those deleted scenes you can't just access them from the main menu. Content such as this should be delivered in the simplest and most consumer friendly way possible and making folks sit through hours worth of stuff when all they want to see is a two-minute deleted scene is a little much.

Secondly, even though I have really enjoyed Warner's Maximum Movie Mode so far on releases such as Watchmen and Terminator: Salvation, I do not like the fact that they have so far supplanted normal audio commentaries. I don't want to be bombarded with information and interactivity or taken out of the natural flow of a film while watching a movie on DVD for behind-the-scenes information all of the time. In fact most times I prefer the passive approach and intimacy that the traditional audio commentary delivers. I know it may be asking a little too much and filmmakers may not be always willing to take the time to do both, but offering an audio commentary in addition to the Maximum Movie Mode feature would be nice. Besides, it's kind of weird to have a Kevin Smith movie on home video knowing the disc doesn't have at least one traditional audio commentary.

Also included for a limited time are both standard DVD and digital copies of the film on a second disc. It's worth noting that all of the aforementioned special features are included on the Blu-ray disc only.

Overall Cop Out has some very funny moments, but unfortunately the pacing of the movie just isn't right and too much of it feels like filler material, and at nearly two hours there's some cutting that could have been made to minimize it. Bruce Willis looks tired and beaten down through most of the picture, and seeing how he had to endure the making of it and I only had to watch it a couple of times I can totally sympathize. For one sit through though it's not so bad and there is some enjoyment to be had out of the whole thing. Seann William Scott is a hoot and for once I actually enjoyed Tracy Morgan, which is quite the switch from him irritating the bejesus out of me in everything I've ever seen him in. The video and audio on the disc are good and more than adequate for the release, but for Kevin Smith fans the extras will make the purchase or at the very least make a thorough viewing of the disc's extras during a weekend's rental a must.

*Note: The images on this page are not representative of the Blu-ray image quality.

3rd August 2010 3:59#2

I didn't regret seeing this in theaters, but probably won't ever watch it again. Aside from Morgan and Scott, nothing about the movie was interesting or funny. Willis phoned this one in. I'm not sure why they took somebody who is a good writer but is poor at directing (in my opinion) and gave him somebody else's script to work with. If anything, Smith should write for other directors.

3rd August 2010 16:57#4

4th August 2010 2:45#5

David WhiteMemberJoin Date: March 2004Location: United StatesPosts: 217

Yes it did. Which for Kev is very out of character. The problem with Cop Out is that it got labeled a Kevin Smith movie, when he was the director of a Cullen brothers movie. On top of that, to those who watched his Evening with Kevin Smith 2, This was a "hide behind the rock" I still love this movie though

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